Three Williamson works
from the 1960s.
I am sure it must be
my fault but I sometimes found Malcolm
Williamson’s music elusive. His monumental
and splendour-saturated Mass of Christ
the King continues to impress but
only because I have access to a tape
of what I guess is its only performance.
His violin concerto as played by Menuhin
was on EMI alongside Berkeley and can
now be heard with the Panufnik concerto
added. That EMI LP made little impression
on me but then neither did Berkeley’s
concerto which was on the same EMI LP.
There was that LP of his Second Piano
Concerto and Concerto for two pianos
and orchestra with the Sitwell Epitaph.
That was more accessible and I would
like to see that reissued. There was
also a two LP orchestral collection
from EMI. At one time there was a CD
of his Seventh Symphony on Cala (Christopher
Austin) which I have always wanted to
hear. So far there have been two Chandos
volumes of his orchestral music – one
of which I am late in reviewing. We
still await first recordings of his
First and Fourth Piano Concertos, Hammarskjold
Portrait, Josip Broz Tito
and the Sixth Symphony.
He seems to have upset
the establishment having been late in
delivering his commission for the Queen’s
Jubilee in 1977. Then there were his
views on Andrew Lloyd-Webber and Britten.
The formers work for the Queen’s 40th
anniversary he described as "absolutely
fatuous". As for Britten he described
his music as "ephemeral" and
as a man he made "an ambidextrous friend
- a backstabber too".
Lyrita did their duty
to Williamson in the early 1980s by
issuing an LP of his Organ Concerto
and Third Piano Concerto. It made little
impact. Those analogue tapes now pop
up again and they have never sounded
so good. Time for a reassessment.
The Organ Concerto’s
thematic motif is ACB which are also
the initials of the dedicatee, Sir Adrian
Boult, much admired by Williamson. Each
of the three movements deploys different
permutations of the full orchestra.
The Andante-Allegro places the
gentle and the imposing against each
other. The thunder of kettle drums can
be heard against the strings, some playing
pizzicato. The organ is largely placid
and quietly ruminative at first then
comes the Bernstein-like Allegro
spiced with jazzy dislocations,
spikiness and dissonance for both the
orchestra and the solo. The central
Largo uses strings alone with
the organ. The strings play a spectral
serenading role of considerable beauty
perhaps touched with Tippett's sense
of complex repose. The finale uses full
orchestra with the organ. An imposing
kaleidoscopic world of trouble and entrancement
is created. This set me remembering
that Aurora LP of Williamson's Vision
of Christ Phoenix. At 2:38 there
begins a wild dash for solo and full
orchestra which might perhaps not too
fancifully reflect the wild euphoria
of the 1960s in which Williamson fully
immersed himself. The rhythmic excitement
of this writing reminded me of the best
of William Schuman – the finale of hid
Third Symphony.
The Third Piano
Concerto is in four movements, the
first of which launches with an insistent
'wrong note' carillon-tirade - a wild
battering recalling Malcolm Arnold at
his most feral. This is a more lyrical
work than the Organ Concerto as the
core of the first movement proclaims.
There is about it the faintest redolence
of the middle movement of the Emperor
concerto but even more sentimentally
romantic. It is noticeably from the
same composer as the Second Concerto.
Following Allegro again charms
the birds from the trees with less of
the clanging 'wrong note' element from
the piano and a bouncing forward motion
rather than the battering pursuit of
the first movement. The third is marked
Molto largo e cantando and is
well named. It is the longest at 13:19.
In it we return to the invocation and
securing of peace in tones that hark
back to Beethoven's Emperor and
also to the quiet meditations of Panufnik.
But then cawing brass call a temporarily
sustained halt before it returns again.
I cannot over-emphasise how magically
lissom this writing is. The piano glitters
as if from RVW’s Sinfonia antartica
and the woodwind and brass moan.
This is another prelude to a majestic
return to the earlier theme of repose
presented this time as if burdened with
portent. The movement then ends in a
downward curve into peace. After a long
silence the short fourth movement returns
us to the clanging exultation of the
first movement. It sounds like some
febrile and intensely sanguine rumba
before a final episode that would have
any audience with blood in its veins
on its feet. It's a magnificent work
and now awaits your discovery.
The Sonata for Two
Pianos is the latest of the works
here. It was commissioned by the Cheltenham
Festival for the husband and wife team
of John Ogdon and Brenda Lucas. It comes
from Williamson’s Swedish years which
also bore the Second Symphony and the
Piano Quintet. Its six movements are
concerned with various aspects of the
Swedish winter into spring – the cracking
ice - the melting snow. The impression
is that we never quite get to the budding
greenery. Until the more mollifying
final Tempo II Tranquillo it
is a work of interstitial complexity,
stony and uncompromising and making
fairly free with dissonance.
The liner essay is
by the composer and enthusiastically
mixes reminiscence with lucidly expressed
description.
This disc is essential
to any Williamson collection and a complement
to the Chandos series. Later this year
Lyrita will reissue many of the works
included in that very mixed Williamson
2 LP anthology that appeared circa 1980:
It will be SRCD.281: the Santiago
de Espada overture - included in
Gamba’s performance in volume 1 of the
Chandos series – alongside Symphony
no.1, Sinfonia Concertante for
piano and orchestra and Piano Sonata
no.2 (Martin Jones, RLPO/Groves, Williamson).
This disc is essential
to any Williamson collection and the
Piano Concerto No. 3 demands to be heard.
Rob Barnett
Lyrita
Catalogue
for details
* Malcolm Williamson (organ) 
